It may already feel like a lifetime ago but one of the most jaw-dropping moments in Game of Thrones season 8 went without an answer for the longest time. How did Arya sneak up on the Night King and deliver the fatal (and White Walker-killing) blow to the coldest man this side of Tywin Lannister? By using one of her awesome masks? Red Woman magic? No, the truth, unfortunately, is a lot less cool than you might have been hoping for.
As revealed during Sunday’s The Last Watch documentary on HBO (H/T Winter is Coming), we got a peek into the key moment thanks to a look at the Battle of Winterfell script.
In it, Arya “vaults off a pile of dead wights” and gets caught by the Night King. Of course, she then engages in a knife trick that would make John Wick blush, though the most important bit is how she reached that point: Pure stealth, with nary a cardboard box in sight. Solid Snake, eat your heart out.
But that’s it. If you’ve been waiting weeks for confirmation that Arya actually used her magical face-swapping powers (you know, the ones she’s spent seasons crafting and perfecting) to get the drop on the leader of the White Walkers, then you may be feeling a tad disappointed.
Still, at least that’s all been cleared up. It takes nothing away from Arya – who’s literally using dead bodies to propel herself forward into Westeros folklore – and doesn’t take away too much from the scene now you’ve had a peek behind the curtain. It’s just… not the answer you might have been expecting.
